“She was enjoying her new home,” says the Denver, CO, pet parent, “but was becoming a real ‘night animal,’ keeping my husband out with her for hours in the yard after dark until the hot summer days would finally cool off. Then she would run and play tug-of-war with him, or roll onto her back so he could scratch her belly. He would get about two hours of sleep a night. The rest of his night, he was outside playing with Rosie.”

They took her to the dog park when it wasn’t too hot, but still Rosie was bored.

“One day I mentioned to my husband that maybe we ought to consider getting her a playmate,” Kelly says. “It wasn’t a hard sell at all … My first thought was Polaris Alaskan Malamute Rescue because I’d been aware of them since my first Malamute died several years earlier.” They found the rescue’s listings on Petfinder and went to meet two potential adoptees.

One didn’t seem like a good match, but when the other dog was let out of his kennel, he got a happy look on his face and ran right to Kelly.

“I loved him!” she says. “He was big and friendly, so we brought Rosie out on her leash to get them introduced to each other. They got along, and pretty soon we dropped the leashes and let them run around together.”

Rosie didn’t quite know what to think of the big dog, but when the two of them stuck their heads into a bucket to drink together, Kelly figured this was the dog for their family.

And it has proved true. “Denali has given Rosie the companionship and energy she needs for playing, and we have given him a loving home with a built in playmate,” she says. And Kelly’s husband can now get a full night’s sleep.